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A collection of snippets of the books I write and, occasionally, my life and the things that inspire my writing...

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

A to Z: S is for (Willing)Suspension of Disbelief

Humans do this quirky thing when faced with a story. They willfully suspend their disbelief. I'm exceptionally good at it, and it makes me wonder if it's a trait of writers.

It's pretty important to fiction writers. And critical to readers if they're going to be entertained. So... what is "suspension of disbelief"? I like this definition, written by Dr. Wheeler of Carson-Newman University:" Temporarily
and willingly setting aside our beliefs about reality in order
to enjoy the make-believe of a play, a poem, film, or a story.
Perfectly intelligent readers can enjoy tall-tales about Pecos
Bill roping a whirlwind, or vampires invading a small town in
Maine, or frightening alternative histories in which Hitler
wins World War II, without being "gullible" or "childish."
To do so, however, the audience members must set aside their
sense of "what's real" for the duration of the play,
or the movie, or the book."

And on this page, Dictionary.com , it's defined: "awillingnesstosuspendone'scriticalfacultiesandbelievetheunbelievable;sacrificeofrealismandlogicforthesakeofenjoyment"It takes this to enjoy a series like "Twilight" even while knowing that sparkly vampires aren't real. And in the Wizard of Oz, we know that the flying monkeys aren't real, but they've been terrifying viewers for decades.

It allows the reader/listener/viewer to step away from reality, and "play along" with the proffered fiction.

What makes it work? I'll give you my guess, based on being a reader, and a viewer. I have to relate to the characters. Even if they're aliens, there has to be some characterization that is a hopelessly human. For a book or a movie, if I'm not emotionally invested, it doesn't matter how fantastic the world-building is. It doesn't matter how wild the plot is. I need to feel the story through the emotions of the characters. One last note. I'm the audience the studios look for. I get so deep in suspension that when the movie's over, I feel disoriented. I'll step outside and be shocked that it's still daylight--that it must be later because I was in the movie's fictional world for so long. I won't know which way to turn for the exit--I've lost track of which side of the cinema I'm in.

12 comments:

No worries - I do that, too! :) Fantastic post. My stories are such a part of me, sometimes it really is hard to remember that the characters don't live and breathe - but they do in my heart. And if they come alive in other hearts, that's enough. :) Love it.Where Legends Begin

My fav thing is in a story when the characters don’t suspend belief and think that this world they’re involved in can’t possibly be real. I yell at them - don’t you read any paranormal or fantasy books??!! yes the characters have to be real. In screen writing it’s called authenticity. To make something believable within the confines of the world

Yes me too. but it can be problem when watching thrillers … I can't pull out of the story and it stays with me in my dreams … But there's nothing to beat a good, well told story, whether on film or on paper, where the characters become like your best friends and you don't want to say goodbye to them. I end up reading the last pages more slowly to savour the last minutes with them :) Great post.Fil

To suspend disbelief in a historical, the situation or event has to be within the realm of plausibility, and the writer must provide a believable explanation for why this happened. Say, a woman in 1810 getting a higher education, a 12-year-old surviving a death camp, an entire family of slaves successfully escaping and making it to the North. Even if something rarely happened, at least give us a reason to believe it could've happened in that particular instance, with conditions coming together in just the right way.